The Huffington Post has uncovered a tape of Hillary telling some fundraisers at a private meeting that she hates the Netroots and Democratic activists, especially MoveOn. Ironically, it was also the Huffington Post that revealed Obama's private meeting with fundraisers that led to the entire "bitter" debacle.
(Funny, Hillary spoke to MoveOn just last year, and praised their work (listen to the audio, it's good). She "personally welcomes" MoveOn's work and says "I am grateful for your work." And let's not forget why and how MoveOn started. They wanted Congress to MoveOn from impeaching Bill Clinton over Monica Lewinksy. This is yet another example of the Clinton's throwing a key ally, a key defender, under the bus when it's expedient.)
You see, MoveOn and the rest of the Netroots is made up of people who aren't very American or patriotic. They didn't even support the war in Afghanistan, Hillary claims, so these are the kind of people she has to deal with. They're also the reason that Hillary didn't win the caucuses, because of those crazy MoveOn people - I hear they would even threaten Hillary's poor caucus-going supporters. And what's more, those MoveOn people raised a ton of money for Obama, Hillary claims, so in reality, Obama didn't raise that much money from real Americans. So Hillary's entire argument, as always, is that everyone really loves her, nobody really likes Obama, but somehow the system is screwing her and making it look like she's losing, when she's really not. She's winning. Sure, she's not winning in delegates, or popular vote, or number of states won, or in donations, but she's winning in the area that really matters: Excuses.
Here is what Hillary had to say:
"Moveon.org endorsed [Sen. Barack Obama] -- which is like a gusher of money that never seems to slow down," Clinton said to a meeting of donors. "We have been less successful in caucuses because it brings out the activist base of the Democratic Party. MoveOn didn't even want us to go into Afghanistan. I mean, that's what we're dealing with. And you know they turn out in great numbers. And they are very driven by their view of our positions, and It's primarily national security and foreign policy that drives them. I don't agree with them. They know I don't agree with them. So they flood into these caucuses and dominate them and really intimidate people who actually show up to support me."
Oh, and guess what? Hillary lied. MoveOn's Executive Director Eli Pariser just gave the following statement to the Huffington Post:
"Senator Clinton has her facts wrong again. MoveOn never opposed the war in Afghanistan, and we set the record straight years ago when Karl Rove made the same claim.
The larger irony is that Obama never did a lot of outreach to the Netroots. His outreach was actually the worst of any of the big campaigns (Edwards was the best, and Hillary's was still better than Obama's, which didn't really exist at all). Yet, somehow, the Netroots still ended up supporting Obama over Hillary, even though they didn't know his people, but they sure knew hers. Just food for thought.
It's funny. Hillary was a big fan of the online grassroots (or Netroots, as we call it) when ABC was defaming her husband in its fictional account of September 11, "The Path to 9/11." At that time, we led a ferocious counterattack that put ABC in its place by exposing the serious errors in ABC's bizarrely inaccurate account of that day's fateful events. The Clintons didn't seem to have much of a problem with the Netroots when we came to their rescue. But now that we're defending Obama against the same biased attacks from ABC, Hillary dismisses us with a wave of her regal palm.
To paraphrase Rev. Martin Niemöller, Hillary has embraced so many right-wing talking points in her campaign, and bashed so many core Democratic constituencies (blacks, gays, gun control advocates, and now the Netroots), that pretty soon she'll have no more Democrats left to blame. Nor will she have any Democrats left to support what has become a truly pathetic caricature of what was once a great Democratic family.
